The sack of the chairman, vice chairman and 13 other members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities of the Lagos State University (ASUU-LASU) by the institution’s management last Friday may be the beginning of a fresh crisis in the institution. The union has vowed to take the battle further. Members of the university community are polarised over the management’s action, reports ADEGUNLE OLUGBAMILA.
THE academic Staff Union of Universities-Lagos State University (ASUU-LASU) chapter is set for battle with the institution’s management. It is blowing hot five days after the university management kicked out 15 of its members, including its Chairman, Dr. Isaac Akinloye Oyewunmi, and the Vice Chairman, Dr. Adebowale Adeyemi-Suenu.
The union has also complained about their alleged harassment by LASU security officers since their dismissal.
According to a statement signed by the university’s Acting Public Relations Officer (PRO), Ademola Adekoya, the offences of the lecturers and two non-teaching staff, who were sacked last Friday, ranged from demanding bribes, result/grades falsification, doctoring of certificates, defaulting of conditions of their training leave bond, and dishonesty.
While Oyewunmi, a senior lecturer in the Department of Human Kinetics, Sports and Health Education, was accused of demanding a N50,000 bribe from 2003 modular year students of Political Science Education on the sandwich programme, Adeyemi-Suenu, a senior lecturer and Acting Head, Department of History and International Studies, Faculty of Arts, was dismissed for altering the results of 12 students of the department who had already been advised by the university’s Senate to withdraw during the 2015/2016 academic session.
According to the management, Adeyemi-Suenu also got the boot for changing the results of some final year students and stragglers outside the scope of the departmental decision, as well as awarding grade point of 2.0 to two students in an examination they did not sit for.
Oyewunmi’s problems started last October when the management received a one-page petition titled: ‘Save our Soul petition against Dr. Isaac Akinloye Oyewunmi’, and signed by one Abiodun Adebola Jolaosho, that accused the ASUU chairman of using a front to demand N50,000 from Political Science Education students on the Sandwich Programme to process their results.
Oyewunmi denied the allegations. In his response to management, Oyewunmi said the petition was designed to tarnish his image and that of ASUU because of the battle the union fought and won under the immediate past management.
On Thursday, January 5, this year, the university wrote him to appear before a fact-finding panel to clear his name. A month later, the university again wrote him to appear before an investigative panel.
Aside those dismissed, Dr. John Olufemi Adeogun, an Associate Professor, from Oyewunmi’s department, was demoted for ‘acts bordering on dishonesty’.
The non-teaching members of staff affected were: Mr. Emmanuel Baoku Babatunde, a Senior Security Officer, who was demoted for allegedly sabotaging the university’s security operations; and Mr. Ramon Ajose Alli, a former head machine operator, who was sacked for collecting N20,000 to assist a student substitute his falsified result in his personal file with another result.
Adekoya told The Nation on phone that the LASU management and Governing Council premised their decision on integrity of the investigative panel as well as statements of the accused who were given a fair hearing.
He said the management would stop at nothing to sanitise the 33-year-old institution.
Workers’ reaction
The workers are divided over the management’s decision. While some are lauding the Prof Lanre Fagbohun-led management, which came on board last January for its boldness in ridding the institution of perennial corruption, others see it as victimisation of the ASUU members, which they termed as going too far.
ASUU-LASU Secretary Dr. Tony Dansu ter said Oyewunmi and Adeyemi-Suenu were still the union’s chairman and deputy, irrespective of the management’s decision.
Dansu described the dismissal of the two union leaders as management’s tactic aimed at silencing the union for its insistence on checks and balances.
“As much as we know, both Dr. Oyewunmi and Dr. Adeyemi-Suenu still remain our chairman and vice,” Dansu told our reporter on phone on Tuesday.
“They (management) are not victimising Oyewunmi or Adeyemi-Suenu, but ASUU,” Dansu added.
While Dansu could not vouch for the 13 others punished along with Oyewunmi and Adeyemi-Suenu, he defended the duo.
He said: “I am not a member of that panel, so it will be difficult for me to say so of those people. But as far as that of our chairman and his deputy are concerned, the union actually saw it coming. We knew it was a ploy by the management to crackdown on the union for our insistence on checks and balances.
“Do not forget that there was a time ASUU-Lagos Zone held a briefing and raised some salient issues that management had not address till date.
“I can tell you authoritatively that up till the (last) Thursday sitting, Council did not deliberate on matters of our members, which bordered on discipline. It was on that day members received the report, which we believed should have been distributed to them ahead so each individual could have ample time to study it before the meeting.
“We were also told the report on Oyewunmi, Adeyemi-Suenu and two other members were not presented in hard copy. Council simply projected it and members hurriedly took final decision on it. Imagine such a matter that ended in dismissal being treated with such levity?
“The letter was dated Thursday, September 7; but by 10am on Friday, security officers stormed the secretariat and ordered the chairman to leave.
“We are not saying the management has not taken their decision, but the university is a public place and the fact that you sacked a staff member does not mean he should not be allowed to move in or out of the university. Our chairman was harassed by security officers that almost prevented him from entering the university premises on Monday. The same happened to our vice chairman on Tuesday and we had to mobilise to prevent that.”
But Adekoya denied the union’s allegations against Council.
“The chairman of Council is a man of integrity, who would not dare do such.
“In many organisations, except where an employee resigns, once you are dismissed, the management of that organisation will declare you a persona non grata. On the other hand, you are considered a security risk, if you force your way into such premises unauthorised.
“For instance, Adeyemi-Suenu, disguised himself and sneaked into the premises, ran into ASUU secretariat and locked himself in. As a law-abiding institution, the management will not allow any individual to incite people to violence and that is exactly what we are doing.”
Another source, who did not want to be named for fear of victimisation, said he did not see LASU winning the war. He, however, said ASUU should not fight the matter in court but allow the lecturers involved to do so individually.
“I want to say if you have looked at the history of litigations in LASU, they hardly win their cases in court and I think this one may not be too different because I suspected that the punishment against ASUU leadership was politically motivated.
“However, I will advise that only individual members of ASUU who are convinced they were being victimised should go to court and not as a union because we suspect that some of them are actually guilty of the allegations.”
Another lecturer, who also pleaded not to be mentioned, blamed ASUU for failing to embrace the olive branch extended by the management.
“Ibere ija laa mo; a kii mo opin ija”, (You only know the beginning of battle, but not the end) the source said in Yoruba.
“I can confidently tell you that ASUU is the cause of this problem because it refused to embrace the olive branch the management extended to it.
“At the time this management came on board last year, there were lots of disenchantment and bad blood by workers, many of who had been denied their promotions and other entitlements.
“The vice chancellor called the leadership of the unions and appealed to them to forget the past and move on. He even promised that we would all get our outstanding promotions and other entitlements, and I can tell you that as at today, management has fulfilled virtually all those promises.
“We had to tell the leadership of our union to heed management’s advice since we have got what we wanted; but ASUU kicked, saying those who created problems under the immediate past administration must be punished. Some of those people have since been dealt with by the management are the ones who are now fighting back.
“I heard that on Friday, one of them was driving around campus victoriously and boasting that what we have seen was just a tip of the iceberg and that more heads would roll. Many of us know it’s not the management’s fault, but those people who had been dealt with are seeking revenge.”
On his part, Oyewunmi said his dismissal was engineered by politics.
“I initially did not wish to speak, Oyewunmi said in a phone call on. “But as soon as the news broke, there were flurry of calls and, at that point, I was wondering whether reporters would think I was speaking for myself or on behalf of the union. So, I decided to keep mum.
‘’But one thing I would say is that this issue was politically motivated. Nonetheless, ASUU is an organised body that would review the situation and react at the appropriate time.”
On the dismissal of Alli, the machine operator, a former NASU leader in the university, who pleaded anonymity, described management’s verdict as too harsh when juxtaposed with the offence committed.
The source said: “Management’s decision against Mr. Ali to me was too harsh compared to the allegation against him.
‘’They (management) said he collected N20,000 to help a student. This is a staff member who had put in 33 years into the service of LASU; that means, he actually was a pioneer staff member of this university since it was established in 1984.
“I expected them to have tempered justice with mercy. I learnt that the union leadership initially wrote to them (management) on the issue and later we heard that the committee that sat on his case recommended termination of appointment. How that later turned to dismissal still beats our imagination.”
Meanwhile, a group, Young Alumni Association, has praised the management for its boldness.
Their commendation is contained in a statement signed by a former LASU Students’ Union President, Adeyemi Wasiu Onikoro, and tagged: “Dismissal of Drs. Oyewunmi, Adeyemi-Suenu and 13 other lecturers – A bold step for Nigerian universities to emulate”.
The group urged the management not to rest on its oars until it rid the institution of all bad eggs.
“Unsurprisingly, many LASU students have taken to the social media to applaud the university authorities while urging them to prosecute other bad eggs in the system. Their message shows frustration and relief. Their hard work must start paying off.
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